Rehe. The Blacksmiths of Mogodé

This film is about the traditional conception of burial among the Kapsiki in North Cameroon.

Among the Kapsiki, a mountain dwelling ethnic group in far North Cameroon, blacksmiths (rehe) perform many trades and crafts calling for specialization, such as music, divination, magic, medicine, pottery, leatherwork, funeral, forging iron and casting brass. All these trades are crucial for the clans and the whole village connecting to the social division of labour. The main focus of this film is death, the three days of performance of the blacksmiths during a burial ceremony. It is about how they organize and make the weeping less dramatic and unfortunate for the bereaved family with their special burial music but also how they take care of the body from the time the man dies until they bring him to the cemetery, ending by the traditional surgery that they make before the burial.